Apple iPad Air comes with the thinnest and lightest design. Although that means a smaller battery, it hasn't actually affected the longevity much. Powered with iOS 7, there are many default settings already enabled which are actually causing the battery drain, not the hardware itself. So let's go through which settings are turned on that we don't often - or sometimes never - use or have any use for them.
Here are some tips to extend iPad Air battery life:
- Set the auto-Lock interval from the Settings app: tap on General > Auto-Lock and set the auto-lock interval to either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes. This will turn your iPad Air off more quickly after a period of inactivity.
- Disable WiFi as it literally eats up the battery at fastest. Go to Settings > tap on Wi-Fi and toggle off the Ask to Join Networks to disable it. This will not disable the WiFi. It would automatically join known networks, but you would have to manually select a network in case no known network is available.
- Another tip to save iPad Air battery - which is actually pretty old for phones - is to dim the screen brightness. Swipe up from the very bottom of screen to bring up the brightness icon which you can manually set. Or, go to Settings, scroll down and tap on Brightness & Wallpaper > set Auto-Brightness to On.
- As shared previously too for improving iOS 7 battery (the latest iOS 7 update is causing a lot of battery drain lately), turn off Location services when not in need. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services.
- Notification Center is pretty good added with tons of new features. However, try to have more apps in the Do Not Include category than in the Include list. Go to Settings > Notification Center to disable notifications for apps you don't require notifications for.
- Keep your iPad Air out of sun or hot car. Never put it in the glove box. Heat degrades battery performance, try to keep your gadgets cool.
- Turn off LTE / Cellular / WiFi connections when not needed. Go to Settings > Cellular > disable LTE/4G to turn LTE off. Or use Airplane Mode to increase iPad Air battery life.
- Turn off dynamic wallpapers. Go to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness and then Choose Wallpaper. Select one of the wallpapers from either the Stills category or from your own Photo Roll - don't select any from the Dynamic category.
- Turn the Photo Stream off from Settings > iCloud > Photo Stream if you don’t use it. Also saves space!
- Disable background app refresh. iOS 7 introduced this feature which lets apps in the background refresh content. While it may be useful for some, not for many. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh, and disable it for iPad Air apps you think you don’t need for.
- Turn the Bluetooth off too from the Settings app when you do not need it.
- Don't simply tap YES to everything that comes up on your screen. If you are a little clumsy like many of us, disable push notifications for selected apps from Settings > Notification Center and disable notifications.
- Turn off Siri from Settings > General > Siri.
- Also make sure to turn off persona Hotspot when not using it from Settings > Personal Hotspot.
About the author: Rafia joined Wccftech in 2012 as a tech reporter. She is currently working on stories focusing on people and technologies that are turning Microsoft into a “company to watch” again. She is also responsible for collaborating with tech makers and e-commerce platforms to bring annoying but tempting deals to our readers.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
